


Blue French Horns and Yellow Umbrellas

by upriserseven



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: AU, Dementia, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 03:56:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1414198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upriserseven/pseuds/upriserseven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the "Screw Carter F Bays drabbleathon" over at the barneyrobin community on LJ. Original prompt: After he shows up at their apartment for the hundredth time, holding up a blue french horn, Tracy writes a heartfelt and tragic apology to Barney and Robin Stinson, as she slowly loses her husband to the illness and hallucinations consuming his mind. </p>
<p>I made a few small changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue French Horns and Yellow Umbrellas

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry.” 

She was frantic. Again. She was always frantic when she appeared. Robin understood why, of course. They were lucky Ted always returned to a handful of places. Lucky. Definitely not the right word to use. 

“You don't have to apologise, honey.” 

By this point, Robin and Barney had lost count of how many times it had happened. She knew, somehow, that Tracy hadn't. That somewhere in Tracy's mind was a log of every time her husband had wandered off, and where he'd ended up. 

“Come in. Let me get you a drink. Tea? Water? Scotch?”

He asked the question, but by the time Barney had ushered Tracy over to the table a few feet from where Ted had fallen asleep, all three were waiting for her, ready to be picked. She went for the water, first. Then poured the Scotch into the tea and started to sip. The three sat in silence, stealing glances at the man on the couch. 

“I heard him talk to the kids, earlier.” Tracy took another sip and winced, before setting the cup down. “He thinks I died.”

“What?” Robin found herself reaching for Tracy's hand. 

“He... he doesn't remember me getting better. He was telling them all about how we met. But that wasn't the story, really. It started with meeting you, Robin. And he told them about meeting me after your wedding. Everything up to then, as far as I know, was true. But it all seemed to get kind of twisted after that. Some of it was right, the stuff with me and him. That was mostly right. But you guys? He was telling them you got divorced and he was telling them Ellie was Barney's daughter, not Marshall and Lily's and, and...” she trailed off as the tears started forming before her eyes. Robin watched as her husband lay a hand on their friend's arm, and Tracy drank the rest of her tea in one gulp. “And he doesn't remember me getting better.”

“He told the kids you... died?” 

“He did. Penny came running into me in tears and I found Luke yelling at him. He knows it's not Ted's fault, he does. I swear he does it's just... it's hard on him. We knew he'd only get worse but nobody was expecting it to happen this fast.”

“We understand that. We really do.”

“All I really heard was Ted mumbling your name. He fell asleep while I was talking to the kids but I came back and he was gone. I knew he'd be here. What did he bring with him this time?”

“It was weird. He didn't bring anything.” 

Every time he'd turned up, he'd had something in hand. Some symbol that he thought was a blue French horn. This time had been different. He'd been completely empty-handed. He'd said the words, told her he was giving her the damn thing, but hadn't presented her with anything. 

“I think I should take him home.” 

“Let me call you a cab.”

“I've only had one Scotch.”

“You're in floods of tears. And it's raining. Please, let us get you a cab.” 

“That was another thing. The umbrella. You know my umbrella? He told them it was yellow. Not green. What do you think that means?”

“Yellow is joyful. Maybe it's just associated with joy in his mind?” Robin thought about the umbrella, how hearing that story had made her reconsider her cynical view of destiny. She glanced over at Barney just in time to hear what he had to say.

“They say that people who are colour-blind can usually see bright yellow. Maybe it means that... although his memories are hazy, although he's lost in his mind and he can't see everything straight, he can still see you.”


End file.
